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This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the painting in the United Kingdom.

The Minister’s ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).

The Committee has judged the painting to be of outstanding aesthetic importance, closely connected with the UK’s heritage and culture.

The Committee awarded a starred rating to the painting meaning that every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country.

Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino, was Turner’s culminating image of Rome, the last work to emerge from his long fascination with the city. The painting, which depicts a panorama of the Eternal City from the Capitoline Hill, across the Forum and into the distance, was painted in 1839, a decade after Turner returned to England from his second and last visit to the city. From the shimmering mist enveloping the city, temples, churches and monuments come into view, revealing a magisterial panorama of the city through a dazzling rendering of Italian light and atmosphere.

This highly significant painting, in excellent condition, has only been in two private collections since it was painted, and until recently was on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Scotland, where it played a vital part in the displays of Romantic and 19th century painting.

Lord Inglewood, Chairman of the Reviewing Committee, said:

If one needed evidence of Turner’s greatness as an artist, this is it. Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino is an astonishingly beautiful painting that underlines Turner’s thoughts and experiences of Rome, and in turn it has played a fundamental part in forming our perception of Turner and his work. Whilst this country holds a good part of the artist’s oeuvre, there are very few of his paintings in this country of this quality and in such fine condition. In addition in a single painting it sums up Northern Europe’s centuries old attitude towards the Mediterranean and the Classical World and its seduction by them.

The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on 2 February 2011 inclusive. This period may be extended until 2 August 2011 inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the painting at the recommended price of £29,721,250 [excluding VAT (£30,284,968.75 including VAT)] is expressed.

Offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price through the private treaty sale arrangements, where appropriate, may also be considered by the Culture Minister. Such purchases frequently offer substantial financial benefit to both parties by the sharing of tax advantages.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the painting should contact the owner’s agent through:

The Secretary
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Grosvenor House
14 Bennetts Hill
Birmingham
B2 5RS

For enquiries on the operation of and casework arising from the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) please contact Sean BC Farran, RCEWA Secretary, on 0121 345 7428, email sean.farran@mla.gov.uk.

The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.

The Reviewing Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the painting is so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune; is of outstanding aesthetic importance, and of outstanding significance for the study of Turner, the British enthusiasm for Italy in general and Rome in particular, and the relationship between painting and poetry explored by Turner and the Romantic generation.

Paired with the artist’s Ancient Rome; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus (Tate, Turner Bequest), Modern Rome was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839 accompanied by a slightly altered quotation from the fourth canto of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage:

The moon is up, yet it is not night,
The sun divides the day with her.

Byron was Turner’s favourite modern poet, whose words seemed to compliment his pictures and from whom he often took epigraphs. While responding to the dualism of mood implied by Byron’s lines, Turner’s changes from the original line ‘sunset divides the sky…’ to ‘sun’ and ‘day’ times the picture to morning rather than evening, suggesting rebirth rather than decline.
6. The details of the painting are: